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Author
Topic: how at risk am i? (Read 1218 times)

Hello, I just wanted some feedback please. A few weeks ago I started getting dizzy spells and one of my lymph nodes behind my ear got swollen and was painful and then went back down. Then the one behind my other ear swelled a bit. They have been swelling a bit and going back down for the past few weeks and I believe the ones in my groin are swollen too. I also have some white tongue. Anyway, I know you dont discuss symptoms on this site but when i googled those symptoms all of this hiv stuff kept coming up and i got freaked out. I had unprotected vaginal sex about 3-4 years ago. It was one time and the man pulled out before ejaculating. I am just wondering if I could have contracted hiv from that and never know about it until maybe now?? Please can you tell me how at risk i am??

You had a single, unprotected incident of unprotected vaginal intercourse. You do need to get tested. You already know we can't make a diagnosis based on symptoms. There is nothing HIV-specific about the ones you are reporting. The ONLY way you can know your HIV status accurately is with an HIV test. Since your risk was so long ago you can do that anytime now. If you have a doctor or a local site where they can give you the result quickly you can get an answer in as little as 20 minutes.

Stop torturing yourself and do the right thing for yourself: get tested. Odds are you will test negative but you can't be sure until you take the test. Whatever the result you will be in the most informed position to take better care of yourself.

And of course you have to learn from this experience which means that everytime you have vaginal or anal intercourse, the guy has to be wearing a condom. No exceptions.

Good luck with your test and keep us posted. Oh, and your symptoms are something you should be discussing with your doctor if they persist.